Which term describes speech that digresses into unnecessary detail before getting to the point?

Circumstantiality is the term that accurately describes a pattern of speech that includes excessive detail and digression before arriving at the main point. Individuals displaying circumstantiality provide a wealth of information—often unrelated—to the topic at hand, which can lead to lengthy explanations that might ultimately seem convoluted or overly wordy. This characteristic is often observed in certain psychological conditions, where the individual struggles to maintain focus on the topic, leading to digressions that may appear irrelevant or excessive.

In contrast, tangentiality refers to a style of communication in which a person starts to answer a question but then veers off onto unrelated topics, failing to return to the initial point. Loosening of associations is a thought disorder where there is a lack of logical connection between ideas, resulting in a speech pattern that may seem jumbled or disconnected. Word salad involves a nonsensical jumble of words, making it difficult to discern any coherent meaning. Each of these alternatives reflects different phenomena in speech patterns, but only circumstantiality specifically addresses the issue of unnecessary detail before reaching a conclusion.